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The sight of a kangaroo hopping into the surf was strange enough, so he went closer to the shore for a better look.

"I could still see its head, and that's when the shark leapt out of the water on its side," he said.

"It just got its body out and that was about it. But [it was] clearly a shark. The kangaroo disappeared after that. I stayed around for a while, just very interested, and hoping the shark jumped again, but it never eventuated."

Friends ribbed him for being drunk or on drugs, but he said he did not care if people thought he was telling the truth or not.

"I'm OK with it. There's no dramas to me. If people want to believe it, they want to believe it. If they don't, they don't."

His unusual story was unsubstantiated until a kangaroo carcass was found on a nearby beach.

Locals said the body washed ashore on Sunday, the day after the alleged shark attack.

Workers from the local coastal committee retrieved the remains on Tuesday and buried them. Then a second witness came forward.

Mick Boucher was kite-boarding on Saturday when he saw a kangaroo hop out of a sand dune and onto the beach.

He said the marsupial stood at the edge of the water for about 10 seconds and then started swimming out to sea.

"It was bobbing up and down," Mr Boucher said. It was about 200 yards from shore when the shark struck.

The predator's back was clearly visible above the choppy waves as it launched its attack, Mr Boucher said.

''It wasn't a huge shark. And it was too far out to see clearly, but it was a shark. I couldn't believe it."

Experts said it was not unusual for kangaroos to take to water.

"Kangaroos can and will swim. It sounds like in this case the kangaroo may have been startled or felt threatened by something on shore and has taken to the water," Matt Vincent, the director of Melbourne Zoo, told ABC radio.

"I think sharks are fairly inquisitive and if the kangaroo was distressed or creating vibrations in the ocean, sending out signals that the animal was in trouble, then a shark has probably taken interest in that."

Adding further credence to the strange tale, a local paper, the Geelong Advertiser, published a reader’s photo of a kangaroo swimming across a river mouth, with only its head visible, at a spot a few miles along the coast.

John Winkler was kayaking on the Aire River in March when he spotted the kangaroo.

"I had to look twice because there was this kangaroo swimming along not far from me," he said.

"It was quite capable and confident in the water, albeit a little on the slow side, but was not impressed by my appearance,'' he said.